“It feels almost like the playoffs,” Helton said in reference to the Trojans’ critical Pac-12 South contest against No. 23 Arizona on Saturday.

Helton dubbed it the second round, while a victory at Arizona State the previous week marked the first round.

The stakes are similar.

When USC and Arizona meet at the Coliseum, the winner will emerge as the clear-cut favorite to win the division and move on to the Pac-12 championship game. These teams are the primary contenders left, with the remaining four teams in the division already carrying two or more conference loses.

Look at it this way. No. 17 USC holds a 5-1 conference record with three games left. Arizona has a 4-1 conference record with four games left. One of them will not only move ahead in the standings with a win, but it will also obtain the tiebreaker with increasingly fewer contests left on the slate. If the Trojans, for example, prevail, they would need to lose both their final two regular-season games against Colorado and UCLA to be overtaken in the standings.

“At least you control your own destiny,” Helton said, “you’re not looking up at the scoreboard, saying, ‘Oh I hope this team or that team wins.’ All we have to do is go out there and do our job.”

The Trojans did last week, when they put together one of their biggest victories of this season over the resurgent Sun Devils.

With four consecutive victories, Arizona has also undergone a similar mid-season renaissance and presents a formidable test, with the dynamic Khalil Tate as the triggerman for its up-tempo, spread offense.

When USC has the ball

Asked this week how he might manage a late-night game that could turn into a shootout, offensive coordinator Tee Martin laughed.

“Just keep shooting,” Martin said.

USC’s coaches are aware of how Arizona’s high-scoring offense could also impact their offense. In four games with Tate as the starting quarterback, the Wildcats have averaged 49 points per game. The Trojans will need to put their share of points, too.

“We just have to focus on what we can control,” Martin said, “and that’s to sustain drives, try to do the best we can to keep them off the field and eat up clock, but ultimately put the ball in the end zone, because with teams like that, you have to at least match or get ahead.”

USC is coming off its second-highest scoring game of the season, when it finished with 48 points in its rout of Arizona State.

Quarterback Sam Darnold led a group that amassed 607 total yards, and the redshirt sophomore passer threw three touchdowns without an interception.

He’ll also look to put up points opposite Tate, his quarterback counterpart.

“It’s fun to be able to play someone that electric,” Darnold said. “It’ll definitely test me mentally, if he breaks off a huge run, how am I going to bounce back and vice versa.”

One development that should help Darnold is that running back Ronald Jones is coming off a 200-plus-yard rushing effort against Arizona State and freshman Stephen Carr, a gamebreakinig and versatile runner, is also expected to return to the backfield after missing four games with a foot injury.

At least one of them has been sidelined with an injury since mid-September.

“You talk about two kids who give us great explosiveness,” Helton said.

WHEN ARIZONA HAS THE BALL

One reason USC would be well served to rack up points is because its defense will attempt to do what no Pac-12 team has managed to do this season: slow down Tate.

In his past four games at quarterback for Arizona this season, Tate, the dynamic sophomore signal caller from Serra High in Gardena, has accounted for 1,583 yards of total offense, including 840 on the ground. Throughout this season, he has been as likely to run the ball, with 69 rush attempts compared to 67 pass attempts.

“He’s virtually a running back playing quarterback,” said Chris Hawkins, a safety for the Trojans.

Arizona went 4-0 in October with Tate behind center, replacing an injured Brandon Dawkins in a win over Colorado and winning Pac-12 offensive player of the week honors each week during the month. He has remained their starter.

“The dynamic of their offense has changed,” Helton said.

To bottle up Tate, defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast stressed that USC would need to tackle well and also contain other playmakers.

Running backs J.J. Taylor and Nick Wilson average more than five yards per carry. Taylor, a freshman, has also been a talented receiving target with seven catches, including a touchdown.

USC’s defense, which was overmatched in a thumping by Notre Dame, recovered last week at Arizona State. Outside of a last-second Hail Mary right before halftime that was initially not ruled as a touchdown, it held the Sun Devils to one touchdown.

But the Trojans have also been banged up on defense for much of this season, particularly on the front seven.

Tate has become a more able passer this season, completing 71 percent of his passes for 743 yards and six touchdowns in October. He was picked off only twice.

Defenses, eager to stop his running ability, have been burned in the passing game too.

“You’re coming up and loading the boxes and creating man-on-man situations for the receivers,” Helton said. “One, the receivers are getting open and then Khalil is hitting ’em in stride.”

Tate has developed as a deep-ball passer, Helton observed.

“It makes it a hard offense to defend when you have both attributes,” he said.

Joey Kaufman is the USC beat writer for the Southern California News Group. Since joining the Orange County Register in 2015, he has also covered Major League Baseball and UCLA athletics. His work has been recognized by the Associated Press Sports Editors and Football Writers Association of America. Kaufman grew up in beautiful downtown Burbank.

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